Veterans home damaged in flood hopeful to reopen soon

BATON ROUGE – Several, once homeless and disabled veterans, called the Magnolia Veteran's Home their home, until the August flood swept everything away.

This year, Byron Comeaux spent his Veteran's Day putting the pieces back together.

"The happiest day is when we reopen and the veterans come home. That is the happiest day, that is going to be our Veteran's Day," Comeaux said.

Comeaux is a veteran and opened a non-profit center for homeless and disabled veterans. He says that after fighting for the country, each veteran should have a home to go to. However, now he is doing work to get the center back up and running again.

"The American Legion hats, they ask me how many hats did we save. They came up and picked up little items that they could find when we were moving things out. They asked us to wash them, but I ordered new hats for them, because something like that sentimental is the only thing they have left of to hold on from the combat zone," Comeaux said.

The eight veterans who lived at the facility before the flood, spent their time in the game room to cope with their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Now, they are ready to come back home.

"Number one they want to know when they are coming home that's the biggest thing, it's just like being overseas, being in combat zone, 'When is it going to get over?, When can I get back to my normal life?' " Comeaux said.

Comeaux said that the Magnolia Veteran's Home will be back up and running at the end of November. If you would like to help the center visit here.